Marquette President Robert Wild, SJ responds to critics on Feingold hire

My emphasis

----- Original Message -----
From: Wild S.J., Robert
To:
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 3:36 PM
Subject: FW: Scandal continues in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee--Pro-death Russ Feingold on staff of so-called "c"atholic Marquette University

Dear Ms. X:

Thank you for your message regarding the Marquette University Law School’s appointment of former United States Senator Russ Feingold as a Visiting Professor of Law. Senator Feingold will teach an elective course, “Current Legal Issues: The U.S. Senate,” to upper-level law students. The course will deal with institutional issues facing the Senate, the way the Senate interfaces with the Constitution and the Supreme Court, as well as the relationship between the Senate and the executive branch. His current commitment is to teach for one semester, with the option to extend it by mutual agreement.

Senator Feingold is almost uniquely qualified to teach such a course. He earned his undergraduate degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a former Rhodes Scholar, and an honors law graduate of both Oxford University and Harvard University. He practiced law for six years with two major Wisconsin law firms, Foley & Lardner and LaFollette & Sinykin. Feingold served for 10 years in the Wisconsin Senate and 18 years in the United States Senate, where he was a member of the Foreign Relations, Intelligence, Budget and Judiciary Committees.  [Nobody is saying his credentials do not qualify him to teach law.  What we are saying is that a Catholic institution should not hire him because he is unethical.  Feingold is unethical because he stated publicly on the senate floor that he supported legalized infanticide after a child was born(after a failed abortion) whereas the doctor or woman supported the decision, and never retracted that statement.  Was he even asked by Marquette administration if he would retract that statement?]
As Law School Dean Joseph Kearney noted in his blog post on this matter, the appointment of Senator Feingold does not in any way endorse his public positions or votes on any given topic. While some of the senator’s views are controversial, his appointment at Marquette Law School does not suggest that all of them are right. But a university and its Law School—and that includes a Catholic university—are especially well suited to explore multiple dimensions of many of these issues. [So my question: is there any ethical standard applied to employees at Marquette University?  I am sure that the university would not hire a prominent member of the KKK; so who draws that line and where is it drawn?]

I have been president here at Marquette for almost fifteen years and have thought a great deal about this question of having political leaders as part of our university community. As I suspect you would acknowledge, none of them are very likely to hold no position whatsoever that does not pose some problems in terms of the considered moral judgment of significant groups of people in this country or in terms of religious teaching, including Roman Catholicism.  [Infanticide as immoral is not an exclusive teaching of the Roman Catholic bishops.  This would apply to most any mainstream religion.] So if on that basis alone we would exclude a political leader from this campus, then on that same basis we had better exclude all of them. To exclude all politicians seems contrary both to the cherished democratic values of our country and the four and a half centuries of efforts by Catholic, Jesuit educators to form their students into individuals that will be engaged members of their respective civic communities. With that said, and given both his extensive qualifications for the course he is teaching and the firm statement that we do not endorse his views on any given topic, I must respectfully disagree that we should not have hired Sen. Feingold as a visiting professor.  [This is a mistake from a traditionally Christian institution.  It seems that Marquette has lost her identity somewhere along the way if public support for infanticide is something that her teach-ers can be espoused.]

Thank you for taking the time to express your concerns. Whether you agree with the perspective I am advancing here or not, I do hope that it helps you understand better Marquette’s position. God bless.

Sincerely,

Robert A. Wild, SJ
President
Marquette University

Fr. Wild would not address the issue of infanticide or abortion as something other than a "religious teaching of Roman Catholicism."  That is where his logic is faulty.  Feingold did not deny the Trinity; he denied that children should have a legal right to live after they are born so long as a parent or doctor deems the termination of that life as desirable.  And Marquette University wasn't even willing to ask him to retract that statement.

My hope is as the institutions of The Great Lakes schism crumble, that Catholics in Wisconsin will be able to build up a new university from their pieces.  Let's face it, the best option for a Catholic University in our state is the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and joining the St. Paul Student Center.  Any attempt at "Catholicism" by Marquette University is a pitch to get included into alumni estate planning.